BOULDER– Random thoughts after watching a 1-11 football team scrimmage against itself Friday:

* Maybe we expected too much from Shane Dillon. Maybe the redshirt freshman will surprise us in Colorado’s fall camp. But the highly touted quarterback is clearly running third behind Nick Hirschman and Connor Wood, the embattled juniors who couldn’t unseat Jordan Webb last year.

More telling was his first couple of series. He fumbled the first snap and got sacked on the second. In his next series, he had a gain of zero sandwiched in between two incomplete passes.

“It’s more than clear that Nick Hirschman and Connor Wood are leading the pack right now,” receiver Paul Richardson said. “They switch off working with our first group. I’d say they’re leading right now. Who ends up with the job? I have no idea.”

BOULDER — First-year Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre issued his first depth chart of spring practice Tuesday and the quarterback race didn’t have much of a surprise. The “pencil” depth chart listed four of the six quarterbacks as co-No. 1s.

While all are getting equal reps, they are listed as follows: senior Jordan Webb, junior Connor Wood, redshirt freshman Shane Dillon and junior Nick Hirschman. Fighting an uphill battle, or searching for a new position, are sophomores Stevie Joe Dorman and John Schrock.

Webb, the starter most of last season, has missed some practices with a sore thumb. He missed Tuesday’s when spring ball resumed after a one-week “spring break.” He is expected to return before the spring game April 13.

BOULDER — I think a big problem with Colorado’s 1-8 record is quarterback play but I insist it’s not all their fault. Supplanted starter Jordan Webb would be an OK game manager if he had plenty of talent around him. He doesn’t.

And nowhere is it more evident than at wide receiver.

He has no breakaway threat. Leading receiver Nelson Spruce (30 catches for 312 yards, 2 TDs), just a freshman, and sophomore Tyler McCulloch are strictly possession receivers. Freshman Gerald Thomas has speed but has yet to show it.

BOULDER — Here is the fifth in a series of Colorado’s top 5 in various categories, this time focusing on the team’s five most important players to this season. Reporters were prohibited from watching practices, so the lists were developed from interviews with dozens of coaches and players during fall camp.

Colorado’s top 5: The team’s MIPs

1. Quarterback Jordan Webb — It begins and usually ends with the quarterback position, which I contend is more important to a team’s success at the college level than in either the NFL or high school. Webb (6-1, 205) is a virtual unknown to CU fans but coaches and teammates believe in him.

2. Tailback Tony Jones — The sophomore, just 5-7 and 190 pounds, needs to produce and keep the opposing defense honest with the running game. Otherwise, Webb may get sacked just as often as he did during his two seasons at Kansas, when he was dropped an average of 26 times times a year.

3. Cornerback Kenneth Crawley — Opposing quarterbacks in the Pac-12 — and they are all talented gunslingers — will pick on the true freshman. If he can’t hold his own, Colorado’s defense will have to adjust. That could spell trouble.

4. Defensive end Chidera Uzo-Diribe — It can be said that Colorado hasn’t had a top-flight pass rusher since Abraham Wright in 2005. Uzo-Diribe has that potential. But as a junior, his time is now.

5. Wide receiver Nelson Spruce — Coaches know what fellow wideout Tyler McCulloch can do. But Spruce, a redshirt freshman, is the X factor. If, as expected, he becomes a dependable go-to target that moves the chains, more options would open up for the Buffs offense.

BOULDER – Here is the second in a series to Colorado’s top 5. Keep in mind, reporters were kept out of practices so this ranking was developed from interviews with dozens of coaches and players during fall camp.

Colorado’s top five as keys to the offense:

1. Quarterback Jordan Webb — I have always contended that the quarterback is more important to the success of a college football team than it is in the NFL or even in high school. At 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, the Kansas transfer isn’t prototypical QB size. But it speaks volumes that he could win the job two weeks into August drills while beating out players that had been in the system. Coaches rave about his competitiveness, toughness and decision making.

2. Tailback Tony Jones — It’s not going to be easy filling the shoes of Rodney “Speedy” Stewart, who became a four-year starter and finished as CU’s second all-time rusher behind Buffs legend (and current offensive coordinator) Eric Bieniemy. But Jones, about the same size (5-7, 190) as Stewart, may be a more consistent runner than Stewart, who was always looking for the long gainer. Don’t be surprised if Jones tops the team in receptions. Like Speedy, he has excellent hands.

3. Left tackle David Bakhtiari — CU’s best offensive lineman, the 6-4, 295-pound junior is on some national award watch lists and deservedly so. There was talk in the offseason that Bakhtiari might move to guard in order to allow sophomore Alex Lewis (6-6, 285) to play left tackle. But coaches chose to keep Bakhtiari as the protector of the quarterback’s blind side and shifted Lewis to left guard.

4. Wide receiver Nelson Spruce — The redshirt freshman from suburban Los Angeles might be Colorado’s next Scotty McKnight in that the 6-2, 195-pounder runs exceptional routes and has soft hands. Also, he is said to have sneaky speed. With homerun threat Paul Richardson (ACL surgery) having decided to redshirt this season, CU must move the chains playing small ball. Look for Spruce to be a frequent target on third down.

5. Tight end Nick Kasa — The former national blue-chip defensive end from Legacy High School has found a home at tight end, and the senior has one season to salvage an otherwise disappointing college career. The guess here is that he does. At 6-6 and 260 pounds, he will be a matchup nightmare for safeties and linebackers.

BOULDER — Colorado’s wide receiver position was going to be young even before standout junior Paul Richardson tore an ACL in his left knee on April 10 during spring drills and underwent reconstructive surgery.

Richardson, evidently a quick healer, plans to be back this season. But nobody knows when.

In the meantime, sophomores Keenan Canty and Tyler McCulloch rank among the most experienced wideouts. Canty (5-foot-9 and 160 pounds) caught 14 passes in 2011 as a redshirt freshman. McCulloch (6-5, 210)caught 10 passes last fall as a true freshman.

BOULDER — The loss of star wide receiver Paul Richardson (ACL tear in Monday’s practice) for the season is a big blow to the Colorado football program which hopes to improve substantionally on last year’s 3-10 record.

But offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy told me Tuesday that he is impressed with the young receivers already on the Buffs roster and expects big things from three signees who will arrive in August.

“All of the guys have done a great job this spring,” Bieniemy said. “Last year was about like, ‘Let’s get together for lunch and see who can do what.’ This year, if we call a formation, these kids know where to line up. If we call a concept, they know what exactly to do. We’re not just talking about splits anymore. We’re talking about details.”

Among the returning wide receivers, Colorado will be looking to sophomores-to-be Keenan Canty and Tyler McCulloch, redshirt freshman Nelson Spruce and converted tight end DaVaughn Thornton.

Three Texas wideouts from the Dallas-Fort Worth area signed with the Buffs in February and will join the program this summer: Gerald Thomas (5-11, 175 pounds, The Colony HS), Jeffrey Thomas (6-3, 190, Duncanville HS) and Peyton Williams (6-1, 190, Southlake Carroll HS).

“We recruited to needs,” Bieniemy said. “All the guys we signed will have a chance to help us as freshmen.”

Richardson, CU’s fastest receiver and top homerun threat, was hurt Monday. At the time, CU coach Jon Embree thought it was an ankle injury. The school announced the diagnosis of a season-ending ACL tear Tuesday afternoon. He will undergo surgery to repair the torn knee ligament.

A junior-to-be, Richardson played as a true freshman and has an available redshirt year.

BOULDER — As Colorado’s “Senior Day” football game Saturday against Arizona approaches, CU coach Jon Embree revealed to the media that a few weeks back he asked selected underclassmen to write a letter to a senior, to tell the senior what he has meant to the team and to the letter writer.

Several seniors said they were touched. Some examples:

“Tyler McCulloch wrote to me and it meant a lot,” CU senior wideout Toney Clemons said of the freshman wideout. “It was one of the highlights of the season for me.”

“Greg Henderson wrote me, and it meant a lot having a freshman like that looking up to me,” senior defensive back Travis Sandersfeld said of the rookie cornerback.

Embree said he read the letters and was also touched. “The guys that wrote the letters showed they are selfless. It’s about the team,” the coach said.

But, oh, my, the spelling, Embree added.

“You can tell it’s the texting generation,” Embree said. “I don’t know if ‘Wheel of Fortune’ is going to make it much longer.”

BOULDER — Although Colorado redshirt freshman Nick Hirschman wishes his team would have been on the winning side, the back-up quarterback said he couldn’t have picked a better place than last weekend’s game at Stanford to get his first game action as a college player.

Hirschman is from Los Gatos, Calif., just a short drive from Stanford.

“To play in my hometown, it was real exciting,” Hirschman told me after a practice this week.

McCulloch, 6-feet-5 and 205 pounds, made a fast impression with Colorado coaches during August camp. He is listed as a co-starter with senior Toney Clemons at one of the wide receiver spots for CU’s Sept. 3 opener at Hawaii.

And yet, Colorado was the only major-college program to offer a scholarship to McCulloch, who had an injury-shortened senior season at Eldorado High in Albuquerque last fall. McCulloch was set to either walk on at hometown New Mexico or New Mexico State when he received a call from Colorado — more than a week after national signing day in February.

BOULDER — Colorado’s newly released two-deep depth chart includes an interesting dichotomy or juxtaposition of 19 seniors and 10 freshmen.

Buffs coach Jon Embree said he likes that balance.

“The thing about having this many freshmen playing, and (the upperclassmen) being around it, the young guys will have some experience to draw on,” Embree said following Monday’s late-afternoon practice.

“I’ll never forget how Mac (Bill McCartney) used to bring certain guys on road trips because it was going to be a big game for us and he wanted (the young guys) to see how it was like.

BOULDER — Video tape of Saturday’s scrimmage has been reviewed, analyzed and dissected by Colorado coaches. Here’s what head coach Jon Embree had to say:

“Early on, offensively, we’d have one guy break down here or there,” Embree said. “After seeing that, it was disappointing.

“But it was nothing we can’t fix. It was good for them to be in that environment, that pressure — getting them to think and react. That explained why we started slow. We have to start fast. We have to create our own momentum. We’ve learned how to do that a little bit, but we’re not where we want to be.”

BOULDER — Some observations about Saturday’s scrimmage, which numbered 148 plays and lasted four minutes shy of two hours, without a break:

• Head coach Jon Embree said true freshman John Schrock, a 6-foot, 215-pound walk-on from suburban Kansas City, is in the lead for the No. 3 quarterback, which would travel along with senior starter Tyler Hansen and redshirt-freshman Nick Hirschman. “John Schrock’s been great,” Embree said. “He has good awareness of where to go with the ball. I’ve got to see the tape, but I think he’s probably entrenched himself as the No. 3 guy, I think it would be safe to say that. He’s got to keep coming now.”

New Colorado football coach Jon Embree wasn’t kidding when he told reporters during Feb. 2 national signing day interviews that his class likely wasn’t yet complete.

On Monday, CU made Albuquerque wide receiver Tyler McCulloch the 20th member of the class (not including grayshirt Alex Lewis) after the Eldorado High product made an official visit to the Boulder campus.

The CU sports information office already revealed one bit of trivia concerning McCulloch — He became the first player signed from New Mexico since defensive lineman Darius Holland became a Buff in 1991. Holland prepped at Las Cruces’ Mayfield High.

Kensler joined The Denver Post in 1989 and has covered a variety of beats, including Colorado, Colorado State, golf, Olympics and the Denver Broncos. His brush with greatness: losing in a two-on-two pickup basketball game at Ohio State against two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.